Big News : Government cancels 4 crore 39 lakh ration cards

New Delhi : The Food and Civil Supplies Department has canceled 4.39 crore bogus ration cards since 2013 to identify eligible beneficiaries under the NFSA. Ration cards are regularly issued to genuine and eligible beneficiaries or families in lieu of canceled ration cards. Preparations are underway to implement NFSA as part of a targeted campaign to improve PDS with the help of technology across the country. Meanwhile, several steps have been taken to modernize the public distribution system and bring transparency and efficiency in its operations.

After digitization of ration card and beneficiary database and after linking it with Aadhaar card, identification of ineligible or bogus ration card, avoiding duplication of digitized data and confirmation of migration or death of beneficiaries, the state and union territory governments canceled 4 lakh 39 thousand cards from 2013 to 2020.

In addition, the relevant quota of NFSA coverage issued is being used by the concerned States and Union Territories on a regular basis to properly identify the beneficiaries under NFSA. Work is underway to include eligible beneficiaries and families and issue new ration cards to them. This work is being done within the relevant limits of coverage defined for each State and Union Territory under the Act.

Under NFSA, TPDS is providing food grains to 81.35 crore people at very reasonable prices. According to the 2011 census, the number is about two-thirds of the country’s population. At present, more than 80 crore people in the country buy food grains provided by the central government.